Jump to content
Cruise Critic Community

Carnival Sunshine Pictures

Cruise_Lovers

By Cruise_Lovers,
in Carnival Cruise Lines

 Share

Recommended Posts

Elaine515

Elaine515

Posted
Posted

What great pictures and probably one of the best reviews I have ever read on here... Quick question, does the Serenity Deck overlook the Lido Deck? It looks like that in your pictures which would make me believe that it would be noisy up there and not so "serene"... Am I seeing it wrong?

 

Thanks ...

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Cruise_Lovers

Cruise_Lovers

Posted
  • Author
Posted
Marc, your room looked beautiful-- along with your upbeat attitude. We're sailing on the Sunshine in August in cabin 11022. Do you have any idea which balconies can be unlocked to open to the adjoining cabins on the Serenity deck. Usually Carnival can give us that info but at this time they do not have it. P.S. should I pack a wet vac?

 

 

Honestly, I have no idea...

 

We didn't need this feature so we didn't try to unlock... sorry...

 

You won't need to bring a wet vac... LOL... the majority of the flooding issues have now been resolved...

 

Good luck in your search for an answer.

 

I wish you a marvelous cruise!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Cruise_Lovers

Cruise_Lovers

Posted
  • Author
Posted
What great pictures and probably one of the best reviews I have ever read on here... Quick question, does the Serenity Deck overlook the Lido Deck? It looks like that in your pictures which would make me believe that it would be noisy up there and not so "serene"... Am I seeing it wrong?

 

Thanks ...

 

 

Thanks for the compliment. I'm doing the best I can to help people before they embark on the ship. I think it is a plus to be prepared before you leave. I didn't have this chance as I was on the inaugural. Still, despites all the problems, we had a wonderful cruise and many pleasant surprises!

 

"Serenity" is huge on that ship (really). It is 3 stories high. If you're on deck 11 (where the Serenity pool is located) facing Lido deck, you will of course hear the music from the DJ / artist coming from the other side (over the "beach pool" sign) but if you climb on deck 12 and 14, you'll see that it is pretty quiet. As a matter a fact, I fell asleep a couple times there... LOL!

 

There is a fair amount of deckchairs, double beds and hamocks all around. Believe me, you'll find this area very "serene"...

 

Enjoy your cruise!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
kybluecruiser

kybluecruiser

Posted
Posted
I didn't find the ship crowded at all. Maybe a little bit in the "Marketplace" area for the breakfast. If you don't go early enough, you'll find this place very crowded... but we're early birds so it wasn't an issue for us...

 

That is good to know. So many on these boards swore up and down that it would be too crowded with the extra cabins added.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Crusing from Colorado

Crusing from Colorado

Posted
Posted

The Sunshine has many more places to eat also. Our favorite place for breakfast was the Taste Bar on Deck 5 Aft. Best Scrambled eggs I've ever had on a cruise. Scrambled Eggs, Bacon, boiled eggs, Fried Potatoes, Sausage, Bacon, Oatmeal, Fruit and Pastries. Fried potatoes were cold but everything else was hot, never could figure that one out.

 

The Blue Iguana Grill also had great jeuvos rancheros. Fried the eggs up to order, getting hungry just thinking about it ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Flying Scot

Flying Scot

Posted
Posted
The Sunshine has many more places to eat also. Our favorite place for breakfast was the Taste Bar on Deck 5 Aft. Best Scrambled eggs I've ever had on a cruise. Scrambled Eggs, Bacon, boiled eggs, Fried Potatoes, Sausage, Bacon, Oatmeal, Fruit and Pastries. Fried potatoes were cold but everything else was hot, never could figure that one out.

 

That's great news as our cabin is deck 5 aft very near the taste bar. Did they have breakfast every morning there?

Link to comment
Share on other sites
spencercoop

spencercoop

Posted
Posted (edited)
That's great news as our cabin is deck 5 aft very near the taste bar. Did they have breakfast every morning there?

 

Here are some pics of the breakfast setup they have.

 

http://zydecocruiser.org/CarnivalSunshineMay17/06Naples/5-22-2013-1/DSC_9548_Zyde.jpg

 

http://zydecocruiser.org/CarnivalSunshineMay17/06Naples/5-22-2013-1/DSC_9549_Zyde.jpg

 

http://zydecocruiser.org/CarnivalSunshineMay17/06Naples/5-22-2013-1/DSC_9550_Zyde.jpg

 

http://zydecocruiser.org/CarnivalSunshineMay17/06Naples/5-22-2013-1/DSC_9551_Zyde.jpg

 

http://zydecocruiser.org/CarnivalSunshineMay17/06Naples/5-22-2013-1/DSC_9552_Zyde.jpg

Edited by spencercoop
Link to comment
Share on other sites
kneedeep1964

kneedeep1964

Posted
Posted

Thanks for the review and the photos..

 

 

N ot all the problems are fixed yet according to my friend who is currently on board, but they are also in an aft balcony in the basically untouched ( other than cosmetics) section of the ship.

 

Glad you were able to make the best of an uncomfortable situation and that it worked out in such a way that you are satisfied! That is all anyone can ask for when they look forward to a vacation and it doesn't go exactly as they had hoped.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
TYinPalmSprings

TYinPalmSprings

Posted
Posted
The ship looks very nice, but the atrium looks very "tacky" especially with the Balls hanging from the ceiling. Does it look "tacky" when you see it in real life?

 

Yeah, I was on it as well, and there looked a bit strange. Some of the crew told me quietly that they referred to them as a"al beads.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
TYinPalmSprings

TYinPalmSprings

Posted
Posted
Ok. Are you ready for a novel..?

 

I'm going to explain everything that happened in details but first, note that we're not picky people at all. We enjoyed our cruise even with all the problems we had.

 

We checked-in the cruise terminal on May 5 around 1:30 PM. We were told our cabin would not be ready until 5:00 PM. No problem. We got a complementary lunch at the Farenheight 555 Steakhouse (wine included). Only this worth around about $100 for two.

 

We arrived in our Cloud 9 Spa Balcony cabin #11016 on deck 11 around 5:30 PM. I had ordered a dozen of red roses for my wife on Carnival's website about two months ago to surprise her (after all, it was going to be the trip of our lives). The roses were on the table in a vase without water in it. Still, they were in good condition so we simply added water in the vase ourselves. End of case. I'm not being picky, I'm just writing everything in details so you can realise that everything was done at a crazy pace.

 

I went immediately to the balcony as it was the first time we had a balcony on a cruise. As soon as I turned around the bed, my feet were soaked. Our carpet was flooded about 25 square feet (from the patio door to halfway underneath the bed).

 

I tried to call guest services but our phone wasn't working. I went down to deck 3. There was a one hour line-up. A couple crew members were wandering through the line taking notes trying to help people. One of them finally came up to me. I explained him our issue. He told me he would forward the info to the authorities ASAP.

 

When I came back in our cabin, my wife told me the toilet wasn't flushing and that the safe and TV weren't working either... ok... so we went down to Promenade deck 5 and found "public" bathrooms. What we didn't know at this point is that we would have to use these for 2 days.

 

We took showers (yes, the shower was working! LOL) We went for our dinner at the Sunset Restaurant - Late Dining 8:15 PM. Awesome dinner and great service! We went to see the show in Liquid Lounge and came back in our room around 11:30 PM. We noticed that nothing had changed in our room. Our carpet was still soaked-wet, the toilet didn't flush, the phone, safe and TV didn't work...

 

Also, surprisingly, we didn't get any turn-down service... no towels changed, no clean-up, no towel animal... our stateroom stewards never showed up! (???). We went to bed.

 

When I woke up I tried to call guest services. Of course, the phone wasn't working. I went down to deck 3 and waited in line. Another crew member came to me. I explained him our issues. He told me he would forward the info to the authorities ASAP. Sort of déjà-vu...

 

When I came back in our room, I saw one of our cabin steward in the corridor. I politely told him that he had forgotten our room the night before. He said that he was really sorry and that this was because he was really tired yesterday. I couldn't believe it... but I didn't argue with him as we had bigger problems than that at the moment...

 

We went to get breakfast. Then, we went to visit the ship and noticed that the main pool (Beach Pool) and that the Sportsquare & Waterworks were closed. There was a panel saying "we're doing the finishing touches and doing our best to get these sections operational as quickly as possible".

 

We came back in our room around 1:45 PM as the ship was leaving Venice at 2:00 PM. We wanted to see it leave from our balcony. When we arrived in our room, no change... carpet soaked, toilet, phone, safe and TV still didn't work... Ok, now that was just too much for me and I was starting to boil inside (at this point, you must agree it's understandable). I went to get a bunch of Cloud 9 Spa towels myself (the big and thick yellow ones) on Serenity - Deck 14. I put them on the carpet and jumped over to absorb the water from the carpet as much as possible as it was starting to smell (humidity). We really enjoyed the vision of Venice's Grand Canal from our balcony (no kidding).

 

Then, we went visit the ship again. When we came back in our room, someone had came to suck the water off the carpet with a "shop vac" and a big and noisy blower was drying the carpet! Yahoo! Finally! Toilet and safe were also fixed!

 

Two days later, carpet was dry so I unplugged the blower in the afternoon. I left everything there hoping they would put everything back in place (bed was move further from the patio door to help the drying).

 

When we came back in our room around 10:00 PM, nothing had changed so I removed the blower myself. I put it in the corridor. I replaced the bed where it's supposed to be and we had to use the towels we had left on the floor as our cabin steward didn't show up again... unbelievable!

 

I saw him in the corridor the next morning and made it clear to him it would be in is interest to not forget us again as I would do a complaint. Everything was OK for the rest of the cruise, without towel animals but I didn't care... all I wanted is clean towels and a room done.

 

3 or 4 days later, still no phone. That's minor, but I was too curious... so I decided to remove the drawers from the desk were the phone was. I checked under and there were unplugged wires coming off the wall and the phone wire was hanging below... Ha-ha! The AT&T guy didn't do his job! LOL! So I went to guest services and told them what was the problem. They fixed it 3 days later.

 

Sportsquare & Waterworks opened 2 days before the end of the cruise...

 

In details, here are the refunds we got:

 

- Because our room wasn't ready when we arrived : $230 ($115 / person)

- Because Sportsquare & Waterworks we're not ready for almost the entire cruise: $150 ($75 / person)

- Because of all the problems we got in our room (20% off our cruise rate): $368 ($184 / person)

- We don't know why: $32 ($16 / person)

 

Total: $780.00

 

We also got a complementary lunch at the Farenheight 555 Steakhouse worth about $100

 

We think the refunds we got are reasonable and we are happy. Carnival did "everything possible" to resolve the problems we had. It took quite some time because there were problems all around the ship and some far more worse that ours (entire cabins flooded, toilet not working for the entire cruise, no shower, no water, luggage lost etc.)

 

We think that the Destiny/Sunshine transformation should have taken at least a couple more weeks in order for the ship to be 100% ready. They didn't have enough time to test it. Also, the crew were totally exhausted and overwhelmed. There were also many inexperienced crew members. This is not what you usually expect on a cruise especially when you pay big bucks for it...

 

Nevertheless, we will cruise with Carnival again as this is the best and funniest cruise line, but never again on an inaugural...

 

I hope reading this was informative/helpful and for those of you who will be on the Sunshine shortly, don't worry. I'm sure everything will be back to normal very quickly.

 

Enjoy your cruise!

 

Marc[/quote

 

Mark, the $115 credit was for overcharges for port taxes that we all got. At first someone told me that it was for the inconvenience if the workers still completing the ship. When I had time with the hotel manager and guest services manager, I got the straight scoop.

 

About your cabin...wow... we were lucky in comparison. Before the cruise we had the opportunity for a free upgrade and we went from deck 1 to deck 7. In retrospect, it was a lucky move as, curious, we went down to our originally assigned cabin, and there was water leaking from inside the door, Our Deck 7 cabin had no bathroom or plumbing issues other than a bathroom that smelled like a barnyard. The emergency exit on Deck 1 where our friends were had an emergency exit blocked with old ceiling materials. It took me 3 days of requests, but they finally cleared it out. Deck level meant nothing, though as we met people on upper levels including balconies, with water pouring out of the ceilings and down on electrical wires, or no water at all, right up to the day of departure when I bumped into people in the hallway asking about a place to shower and use the toilet as their bathrooms were non functional.. I just worried for them and future passengers about the dangers including mold, as many cabins had wet rugs, and some with overflowed feces from somewhere else.

 

We had little tv, and a phone that didn't work, and a thermostat that did not work. We learned that none of the thermostats worked on the ship. Our cabin was very, very, cold, but I took care of that by wearing sweats to bed, including a hoodie, and got extra blankets from my cabin steward.

 

I learned that when they piled the additional decks on the ship they did something to disrupt the equipment associated with the tv reception and that is why they did not work.

 

We were fortunate that we had so many wonderful ports as the smell of silicon fumes on the sea days gave me and others horrible headaches. This, like you with outside air options were fortunate to have some way to vent it out.

 

I was stuck in the elevators 3 times in the first 4 days. The emergency alarm did not work either. After the first time and hearing stories from others, I carried around a dining room bread knife that helped me force open the doors enough to get my hands in there to open them.

 

Il earned from the ship that many staff were left at Venice as they did not have cabins that were finished. Some of the staff also walked off along with some passengers at some of the ports due to the conditions. Many of the staff members had to double up on work, and at the end of the day their cabins were worse, they advised, than the passengers. Some of the crew ended up being housed in passenger cabins. Our cabin steward was wonderful. We had towel animals every day of the cruise, not that it mattered to us, 2 mature men, but we did hear from people like you who had seen none.

 

One of the very worrisome things was the lack of passenger safety. The wires hanging out of walls and ceilings and the holes in the floors caused some problems. I also watched workmen applying paint and others adhesive, both extremely flammable materials, and the guys had lit cigarettes in their mouths. When I finally got with the safety engineer and showed him my photos, his eyes nearly fell out. That was the reason for the announcement over the loudspeaker about smoking that you heard at the end of the cruise.

 

When they finally opened a small potion of the watersports deck the line repeated over and over was "if they can't get the toilets to work, and have not finished the ship, how can we trust our butts in those tubes above the ship".

 

Like you, we tried to make the best of it, and it got to the point where we started laughing about the stuff, but that was very difficult at times. I felt so bad for those passengers and crew alike who were plagued with severe problems. It was hilarious when I walked into a public men's room at all of the urinals were on the floor, not installed, and the bathroom outside the Liquid Lounge, the main performance area, and for just about all of the cruise the urinals were covered with red bags with a sign HAZARDOUS WASTE and the cubicles locked with that very familiar sign to us all "Sorry, we are not yet finished...blah blah blah"

 

This ship needed a few more weeks and a quality and safety check before it was set lose. They took quite a risk. I just hope it is better for those after us.

 

I had one other problem that I considered just as serious, and that was a HATE speech that was done by one of the performers. When I expressed my concerned the CD asked me what kind of money I was looking for, to which I responded "this is not about money". They gave me a 20% discount on the rest of my cruise days after that anyway, and a commitment that it was in the hands of Adrian Fischer VP at corporate.

 

I have been on 28 cruises including many with Carnival. I think I will give them a rest for a while.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
kneedeep1964

kneedeep1964

Posted
Posted
The first night, the comedian summed it up well when he said as his opening remarks:

 

"Welcome to the Limelight Lounge, one of the only completed rooms on the ship"

 

 

That really is funny. Even the comedians knew they were in trouble...

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Cruise_Lovers

Cruise_Lovers

Posted
  • Author
Posted

TYinPalmSprings :

 

Wow... you also had your share of problems but you did exactly what we did... laugh about it... why ruin our vacations for things we couldn't have changed anyway...

 

Thanks for the precisions about the refunds and thanks for all the new info about the things that went on on the ship... some of the things you shared are totally unbelievable... kind of scary...!

 

Maybe I'll also give Carnival a break for a year and try a new cruise line... if we get a good deal!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Canadiankaratemom

Canadiankaratemom

Posted
Posted

Thank you for your beautiful pictures and your honest review. My husband, daughter and I were supposed to be on this cruise as we loved the ports of call and the pricing, but had no idea that Sunshine used to be Destiny and was being reburbished. Had to cancel just before final payment . The ship does look less "colourful" than the Splendour... looks like Carnival should have cancelled this sailing as the ship was really not ready for both passengers and crews. Am very surprised that they did ... one would think that there must be mimimum requirements in order for a ship to be allowed to sail just as new housing requirements before people can move into a new home. I would have been more than "boiling" with all that you went through.

 

I would agree with you in giving Carnival a break and trying other cruise lines.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 2 months later...
by_u_nurse

by_u_nurse

Posted
Posted

This appears to be very different than the taste bar on the Conquest. Theirs had free samplings from different restaurants a few evenings. Does this convert to same in evenings? Also see it appears there is the Italian and Asian for fee restaurants. On the Magic during lunch, the Italian one was included in the fare. Is it the same here? What about the Asian?

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Sargent_Schultz

Sargent_Schultz

Posted
Posted
This appears to be very different than the taste bar on the Conquest. Theirs had free samplings from different restaurants a few evenings. Does this convert to same in evenings? Also see it appears there is the Italian and Asian for fee restaurants. On the Magic during lunch, the Italian one was included in the fare. Is it the same here? What about the Asian?

 

The Conquest does 7 day sailings. My cruise was 9 days so if was offered more evenings. Other than more participating restaurants, it is similar to Conquest at night.

 

Unlike on Conquest, the Taste Bar was sometimes open at breakfast and lunch and there never was a crowd. Similar to Dream class ships.

 

The Italian and Asian restaurants have a fee at night but are free at lunch. The food you pay for is much different than what is included during the day. The Italian place is a pasta bar at lunch, similar to what is on the Dream class ships. JiJi's Asian Kitchen is basically a Mongolian Wok at lunchtime. Both also are set up as breakfast stations in the morning.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
by_u_nurse

by_u_nurse

Posted
Posted
The Conquest does 7 day sailings. My cruise was 9 days so if was offered more evenings. Other than more participating restaurants, it is similar to Conquest at night.

 

Unlike on Conquest, the Taste Bar was sometimes open at breakfast and lunch and there never was a crowd. Similar to Dream class ships.

 

The Italian and Asian restaurants have a fee at night but are free at lunch. The food you pay for is much different than what is included during the day. The Italian place is a pasta bar at lunch, similar to what is on the Dream class ships. JiJi's Asian Kitchen is basically a Mongolian Wok at lunchtime. Both also are set up as breakfast stations in the morning.

 

Thank you! Would you happen to have any insight on Promenade level cabins... Noise level, smoke from casino? What about Liquid Lounge... Did I understand correctly that it houses all shows and doubles as lounge late night?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing
  • Forum Jump
    • Categories
      • Welcome to Cruise Critic
      • New Cruisers
      • Cruise Lines “A – O”
      • Cruise Lines “P – Z”
      • River Cruising
      • ROLL CALLS
      • Cruise Critic News & Features
      • Digital Photography & Cruise Technology
      • Special Interest Cruising
      • Cruise Discussion Topics
      • UK Cruising
      • Australia & New Zealand Cruisers
      • Canadian Cruisers
      • North American Homeports
      • Ports of Call
      • Cruise Conversations
×
×
  • Create New...